


one more morning

by angelacaduca (kallistei)



Series: the last days of the century (and the first of a new one) [4]
Category: DBSK | Tohoshinki | TVfXQ | TVXQ
Genre: Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-06
Updated: 2014-05-06
Packaged: 2018-01-23 19:57:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,460
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1577594
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kallistei/pseuds/angelacaduca
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sunset is inevitably followed by another sunrise; you only have to wait.</p>
            </blockquote>





	one more morning

**Author's Note:**

> For my birthday in my time zone, and Jaejoong's birthday in his. Thanks to [](http://ranalore.livejournal.com/profile)[](http://ranalore.livejournal.com/)**ranalore** for the beta and sorting out my Super Junior issues.

_every time you choose_

Kim Junsu's career lasts longer than Dong Bang Shin Ki's did, well over a decade before he and management decide between them that it's finally time for him to move on. The news of his final concert doesn't bring the dumbfounded shock and threats of suicide that the group's did, but all the same there's enough of a reaction to convince them all that at least Junsu hasn't outlived his welcome.

Junsu tells the others a few days before the news leaks, a week before the official announcement. The next day, Jaejoong starts looking at houses. At first, he doesn't tell any of the others about it, half-worrying that it's a silly idea, half-wanting it to be a surprise.

Eventually, Jaejoong enlists Changmin's help - Changmin has a good eye for the practicalities and when Jaejoong gets carried away, Changmin points out that this house would be too long a commute from Yunho's office, that one doesn't have enough bathrooms for people who've become used to living one or two to an apartment, the other's a little out of their price range.

\---  
 _opt in to kindness_

After Junsu's last encore - the title song from his first album, the first song Yoochun started writing for him - he stands at the edge of the stage and calls out for his special guests. Jaejoong, Yunho, Yoochun and Changmin walk out from the wings. The five of them look at each other for a moment before they fall into harmony as if it hasn't been a dozen years since they stood on the same stage, look out over a sea of lights and sing the song Yoochun finished the day after Jaejoong got back from his long holiday, that first year as just themselves. "We were Dong Bang Shin Ki," they say when it's done, and smile without tears as Yunho reels them all in to a hug. Out of sight of the cameras, safe behind the others' bodies, Jaejoong gropes at Junsu's behind for old times' sake; because he can; to hear Junsu laugh into Yoochun's shoulder and slap at Changmin's hand.

The next day, Jaejoong drives them out to a house on the very edge of the city, a house with enough bedrooms that anyone who needs space will be able to take it; an office for Yunho and Changmin to halve; a studio for Yoochun and Junsu and himself; a living room with enough floor space and a soft enough carpet that they can all sprawl out together when they want to. And enough bathrooms that no-one has to wait too long for a shower, or share unless they feel like it.

\---  
 _one step closer_

They learn to live with each other again, slotting themselves into the spaces of each other's lives more closely, bumping elbows around the dinner table every night instead of just when their schedules allow. The door to the studio is often open, and the sound of Yoochun's piano softens the edges of the rare silences. Jaejoong sings in the kitchen, and calls it rehearsal until Junsu joins in, harmonising dirty, nonsense misreadings of the words. ("What?" Junsu asks, innocent when challenged. "I'm not allowed to practice too?" Forgetful of years and ages, Jaejoong pins him against the counter; they end up eating takeaway that night.) Changmin's marking doesn't stay just in the office for long - it spills out onto the living room coffee table, and eventually Yunho's paperwork joins it, half tidy piles, half loose sheets that go everywhere. The two of them sit at opposite ends of the long sofa, feet tangled together in the middle, working quietly until one of the others wanders by and shatters the peace.

\---  
 _echoes all over_

One evening, they go out to the club where Jaejoong sings. Jaejoong smiles when he catches sight of them in the audience, tips his chin into the spotlight, feels them watching him, and sings. He opens his eyes to Yoochun applauding, Changmin smiling wide and open, Junsu with his fingers in his mouth to whistle, Yunho's eyes closed to catch the last fading notes of the song.

\---  
 _the hungry fed food_

They're something of an open secret now - five well-liked, good-looking, well-off men who live together, who haven't so much as dated in years. (Not that some of them haven't tried. Yunho went to the marriage meetings his parents organised, and found he couldn't see himself spending the rest of his life with any of the polished, professional young women he met - he wanted Jaejoong's odd humour, Changmin's pinprick observation, Yoochun's warm silence, Junsu's hidden determination. Yoochun dated here and there, saw one girl for almost three months, but he hung up on her one too many times to take Jaejoong's rambling calls from thousands of miles away, refused too many dinner invitations to fall asleep at Changmin and Yunho's table, held on to Junsu too tightly in front of the cameras.)

\---  
 _life has one warning_

For three days in a row, Changmin doesn't make it home until everyone else is asleep; when the others open the fridge door on the following mornings, they find the meals they'd left for him untouched. On the fourth day, Jaejoong walks into Changmin's office at lunchtime, uninvited and unannounced. "I'm kidnapping you," Jaejoong says before Changmin can even open his mouth. "There's a getaway driver waiting downstairs, and all the exits are covered, so you shouldn't try anything."

Changmin gives him a baffled look, shifts it sideways to include Yunho and Junsu, who've appeared behind Jaejoong. "What are you talking about?"

"You need a _break_ , Changmin-ah, and we're going to make sure you get it. An afternoon off, at least, and then you can go back to your - whatever."

Between them, they've put together a picnic on the beach, quiet at this time. After they eat, Changmin falls asleep next to Yoochun (the getaway driver), and Jaejoong leans against Yunho, his hand meeting Junsu's behind Yunho's back, and watches the way the years fall away from their faces.

\---  
 _love just a little_

Yunho still dances in the living room with the furniture pushed to one side, if not quite as fluidly, if slightly more careful of older joints. Sometimes, Junsu presses the change CD button until a slower song comes on, nudges his way into Yunho's arms and coaxes him into the slow, curling steps of a waltz they had worked out how to dance with Donghae and Hyukjae when they were much younger. Jaejoong watches them from the armchair where he's squeezed in next to Changmin, watches their feet falling into patterns as old as their friendship and their arms looped around each other; Jaejoong smiles to himself, leans into Yoochun's arm around his own shoulders and Changmin's fingers against his hip.

\---  
 _solving a riddle_

They spread a blanket on the lawn behind the house, and lie with their heads together in the middle, their bodies stretched out like the spokes of a wheel. For a moment, Jaejoong remembers a hundred studio ceilings, a thousand photoshoots that seem lifetimes ago now. His bare feet brush grass, the square of cloth not quite large enough to hold all of them. Jaejoong feels lighter than air, wonders for a moment if he might float into the sky overhead without even noticing. When he throws out his arms to anchor himself, one lands on Yoochun's chest hard enough to make him give an 'oof' of surprise; Yunho catches the other hand before it does similar damage and holds on, tangling their fingers. Jaejoong pats Yoochun in apology, looks over him at Changmin and bites his lip at the amusement so clear on Changmin's face, looks up again as a shadow falls over them to see Junsu standing there, saying that he's had enough quiet time, and they should play something now. Jaejoong reaches up instead and pulls Junsu down to them, to tumble in a heap next to Jaejoong and crumple the blanket with his flailing as Yoochun and Changmin dig fingers into his ribs.

\---  
 _make one connection_

Even when he's alone in the house, Jaejoong can feel the others there, the knowledge that this is where they come home to. It's there in Changmin's shoes lying haphazardly by the door because he never knows which pair he wants to wear until he's leaving, Yunho's tie forgotten over the back of a dining chair where he'd dropped it on his way to the kitchen, Yoochun's note on the dressing table where he knows Jaejoong will be sure to see it, Junsu's scribble on the fridge whiteboard, half shopping list, half lyrics. This is more than good enough, Jaejoong thinks one day, months after they first move in. This is the best thing he's ever had.


End file.
